A former Catholic priest has been sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to molesting a boy more than two decades ago at an Evanston hotel.
Kenneth Lewis, 62, entered the plea Thursday to a felony count of aggravated sexual abuse in a deal with Cook County prosecutors that saw other charges against him dropped, including predatory criminal sexual assault, court records show.
Lewis was sentenced by Judge Anjana Hansen at the same hearing. He will be required to register as a sex offender for life after his release.
Known as “Father Ken,” Lewis was charged in 2018.
Former priest Kenneth Lewis, 62, has pleaded guilty to a felony count of sexual abuse.
Evanston Police Department
The former Tulsa, Oklahoma pastor was accused of sexually assaulting the 13-year-old boy on a trip in the summer of 2001, the Sun-Times previously reported.
The boy’s parents filed a report with Tulsa police in June 2004, nearly three years after the alleged assault occurred. Authorities in Oklahoma referred the case to Evanston police, who sought charges 14 years later.
Lewis was living in South America at the time a warrant was issued for his arrest and he was taken into custody after flying to Atlanta in 2017.
Lewis has faced an extensive history of sexual abuse allegations. As many as six victims have come forward with complaints against Lewis, and he was ordered to get treatment by church officials in 1994, according to media reports.
After Lewis finished treatment, he was ordered not to spend time alone with children. But he served as an associate pastor at a number of Oklahoma churches before he was appointed pastor of St. John’s Catholic Church in McAlester, Oklahoma.
Lewis resigned from that position in 2002 after diocese officials renewed investigations into claims that he improperly touched young boys in the 1990s. In 2007, he was the first pastor in the Tulsa Diocese to become laicized, or disallowed from further work as an ordained minister.
The same year, the parents of an alleged abuse victim filed a civil lawsuit in Chicago, accusing Lewis of molesting their son in 2001 at an Evanston hotel. Court records show the lawsuit was withdrawn in July 2009.